Sign Up to Unlock Opportunities to Join the "Arts for the Future" Festival!
Here are 3 powerful ways to engage with the Arts for the Future Festival:
1.
Submit Your Event
Whether it's in-person or virtual, near the UN in NYC or in your own hometown - your event matters.
Host a screening, dialogue, exhibit, or performance!
We’ll provide:
A digital event toolkit
Promotional support to get your work featured
A listing on our official Global Festival Events Calendar
2.
Apply to be a Curator
Are you a creative youth, artist, organizer, or changemaker with a powerful lens?
Apply to join our global festival curator circle - and receive training in arts curation as you help select this year’s most powerful films, performances, panels and exhibitions.
We’re looking for bold perspectives rooted in justice, culture, and creative innovation.
3.
Join the Global Dialogue
Be part of panels, talks, and artist conversations addressing:
Meaningful youth participation in the creative economy
Artist representation in global diplomacy
Climate storytelling
Creative AI for the Global Good
Sign our ARTIST MANIFESTO for a just and sustainable creative economy!
MEET OUR CURATORS
Our curators are not gatekeepers — they’re visionaries.
Drawn from across the globe, they are artists, creative youth, organizers, educators, and cultural workers who bring bold perspectives to the intersection of art, activism, and diplomacy.
Each curator helps shape the festival’s programming with a focus on:
Equity and inclusion
Decolonized storytelling
Urgent issues like AI colonialism, climate justice, and cultural sovereignty
Together, they ensure that Arts for the Future isn’t just a showcase — it’s an intergenerational statement.
🡒 Get to know the creative minds behind the movement.
SEPTEMBER 2025:
Join the Artists March!
March with us from Times Square to the United Nations!
Join us for the third annual "We, the Artists March" to demand artist representation in the policies and programs that affect us!
We'll be inviting dancers, singers, beatboxers, puppeteers and more to artify our march. Join us, make your poster and let's march for a better world for artists and creatives!
About the Festival
The Arts for the Future Festival is an artist-led, global hybrid event powered by the United Nations Civil Society Conference’s Arts & Culture ImPACT Coalition and Working Group.
It will take place in the lead-up to—and beyond—the UN General Assembly and Climate Week NYC, with activations during COP30 and UNEA7.
This festival is a bold call to reimagine the role of arts and culture in sustainable development.
It champions a more representative, equitable, and inclusive ecosystem where artists and creative practitioners are not just participants—but leaders.
At its core, Arts for the Future responds to an urgent truth:
The current systems surrounding art and policy are outdated. To unlock the full potential of the arts sector, we must transform the structures that limit its impact.
ABOUT OUR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Partner with the Arts for the Future Festival and align your brand with a global, artist-led movement at the intersection of art, justice, and diplomacy.
As a sponsor, you’ll gain visibility during high-level events like the UN Summit of the Future, UNGA, and Climate Week NYC, plus across our global hybrid activations.
Benefits include:
Brand exposure across our digital and in-person events
Speaking or hosting opportunities
Access to our global creative network
Custom co-branded activations
We welcome financial sponsors, in-kind support, and mission-aligned collaborations.
📩 For details or to request our deck: hello@artsandcultureworkinggroup.org
Are you an Artist, Creative Young Person, Storyteller?
Join our Artist Roster and We'll Match You with Partners Looking for Creative Talent!
About the Arts & Culture ImPACT Coalition /Working Group
The UN Civil Society Arts & Culture ImPACT Coalition was formally launched 9-10 May 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya. As a civil-society generated, diverse stakeholder constituted coalition, we agree to work towards advancing certain key reform initiatives leading up to and beyond the UN Summit of the Future.
The Arts & Culture Working Group oversees the Arts & Culture ImPACT Coalition and works as an autonomous, self-governing working group committed toward amplifying the voices of diverse artists and cultural workers in UN processes.
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Iliana Olalde is a Mexican interdisciplinary artist, feminist, and art educator. Her practice bridges participatory art and feminist pedagogy to explore the politics of the body and the image through collective processes. She has a background in art and gender, contemporary dance, and communication studies, and has shared her work in collaboration with cultural institutions and feminist organizations throughout Latin America, the U.S., Europe, and Asia.